What do you feed your cats?
Posted by bkny227 on Jul 01, 2012 · Member since Mar 2009 · 1 posts
I'm vegan but my cats are not. I'd love to hear about what other vegans are feeding their cats and perspectives on what would be the most healthful and humane choices for them...I've heard about cats becoming ill and some even dying from a vegan diet and I can't bring myself to handle much less cook raw meat. I think most commercial cat food is junk food and extremely inhumane but at the same time, it's what my very picky cats are used to...especially the older rescue cat who came from a shelter. I'm leaning towards buying humane certified, organic, cooked meat...although it breaks my heart...or trying vegan cat food like the Evolution Diet...has anyone had experience with this brand or can you suggest other options? Thanks
I never fed my cats a vegetarian diet. Cats are natural carnivores, like it or not. It's inhumane, in my opinion, to force a vegetarian (especially vegan) diet on them. Would you tell a lion not to eat meat? I think going with organic cat food is the best choice. I want my pets to be healthy and in tune with nature... even if it's a different nature than mine.
I agree completely with mrsrazon. While I am a no-dairy vegetarian for both ethical and health reasons, now that I know that cats and dogs are carnivores I can not justify feeding them anything other than what they were biologically designed to eat. Vegan/vegetarian diets are not natural and will only lead to health problems, and commercial cat/dog food is crap designed to make money for large companies. I feed a prey-model diet and try to find local sources of more "humanely" raised meat and eggs. Do research, join message boards (especially Yahoo! groups rawfeeding and rawcat), and be resourceful and you can feed a less-cruel and species-appropriate diet to your cat!
I completely agree with mrsrazon and lsrmerriam that stated how unethical forcing a cat to be vegan is. ITA that lions are not forced to be vegan, so why domestic cats? They also NEED Taurine. I personally prefer to feed my cats chicken or fish as apposed to beef or lamb, because honestly, WHEN would a 7 lb cat ever take down a cow in nature? They wouldn't. So beef and red meat are not natural for them to be eating.
I also agree w/ bkny on how UNhealthy commercial petfoods are with all of their fillers, chemicals, and byproducts. *cough Science Diet cough* I feed my kids Orijen which many believe is the best dry pet food. There are also exellent wet foods (but some of my guys throw up wet food) like Weruva. Try googling Orijen and going to the store finder, finding a small local petfood store that carries it. That is how I found the good stores that sell ONLY non-corn and non-by product pet foods. Other brands are Taste of the Wild, Natural Balance, Gold...
Other options are raw, freeze-dried, cooked fresh. The raw chicken you can get in a tube and put on gloves to serve. Looks like paste.
Trader Joe's sells a good blend of cat food but whichever food you decide cats need meat and a very wet diet as well. Kidney disease is always a high risk for feline's and feeding them only or mostly dry foods causes them to be at higher risk or early death from kidney disease.
I feed my cats, 4 cats, twice a day. I split a can of wet food with about 3/4 of that can filled with water (once I emptied the food) and a had full of dry. Mix it up and evenly distribute it. I feed this again for dinner. I always have a very small bowl of dry food for them to munch on during the day because dry it good for some tartar control and of course I always have super fresh water out for them with 2-3 drops of grapefruit seed extract in the water.
My 13 year old cat got an excellent bill of health and dental check too =^..^=
Earthbon holistic is a great EU certified usa made brand cat food for a dry food... very environmentally concious. They have 2 grain free varieties. Orijen dry is my other fav- also environmentally concious but made in canada wich isnt a bad thing but the shipping isnt environmentallly friendly and it is reflected in thw price unfortunantly. Natures variety instinct is another good one, as well as anamate grain free variety as far as recipe and manufacturing go. Taste of the wild and natural balance may have ok recipes, but they are manufactued by diamond so be very careful! Also anamate is manufactured by ohio pet who are pretty safe as far as my research goes but deal with corn and alfalfa meal which are both no good in the factory. Let me know if any of this helps! My cats are on a mix of earthborn and orijen with petguard organics, weruva, earthborn, and bynature wet food (weruva and earthborn are made in a human facility) and I have one cat who has severe urinay issues on royal canon SO (yuck.... but it helps him).
Good luck! Btwthat trader joes brand doesnt look too bad but id be cautios of any cheap food.... where arw they made and where are the ingredients sourced? Also, I know that brand used to have not-so-great things in it. Just be careful...... if u find out anymore info in it can you post it please? Also, I probably eat close to 30perceny protien some days..... I like my cats food to be atleast 40percent protien if not higher (except that gross SO). Again, hope this helps!